A life-giving minute

Every day six to seven thousand children with heart problems are born in Ukraine. These children can receive help, but not everywhere. Little patients from all over Ukraine come to the Scientific and Practical Center for Child Cardiology and Cardiosurgery, one of Europe’s largest heart centers.Unfortunately, children often die on the way to the center. But now the little patients have a chance: the charity fund Children’s World presented the center with a reanimation vehicle, the first one of its kind in Ukraine.

On the outside this vehicle looks like an ordinary ambulance. But inside it has state-of-the-art equipment conforming to all European standards. “If necessary, urgent surgeries can be carried out here,” says Volodymyr Zhovnir, the head of the Intensive Therapy and Anesthesiology Department.

This kind of “operation room on wheels” costs nearly one million hryvnias. Doctors say that the prohibitive price is the main cause of the scarcity of these vehicles. “In mid July we announced an all- Ukrainian charity campaign,” says Liudmyla Haiova, the head of the Children’s World fund. “Since then we managed to collect 400,000 hryvnias. The rest was provided by the bank Nadra.”

The reanimation vehicle will be sent to answer calls on the whole territory of Ukraine. In order to help receive little patients coming to Kyiv, doctors at the center are planning to set up a GPRS connection. “Perhaps, a mobile operator will join the campaign,” says Zhovnir. “Then we, still on our way to the patient, will be able to set up the equipment and get the operation room ready. And in general this will allow for instant transmission of data on the patient’s condition.”

At the same time, doctors agree that one reanimation vehicle for all of Ukraine is not going to solve the problem. With the accomodation capacity of 150 patients, the Child Cardiological Center is now completely full. Every day five patients have surgeries. “We are unable to cover the whole country. But this is a partial solution of the problem,” comments Zhovnir. His dream is that the center will one day have a helicopter that will offer greater opportunities for saving little patients.